In the United States people can and are allowed to believe anything they
want, but some beliefs are more reasonable than others. This raises the
question: Is it reasonable to believe, as Christianity teaches, that God
forgives our sins?

We have conscious, subjective experience, which cannot (to the best of our
knowledge) be explained by the physical sciences. As best I can tell, a
creative, metaphysical force seems to be responsible, and I think it is
reasonable to regard “God” as either responsible for this force or
equivalent to this force. If God created us as thinking, feeling beings, it
is reasonable to think that God likely cares about us. In that case, God
could reasonably want to forgive our sins, rather than condemn and punish us
for them.

Of course, if God forgives our sins because God cares about what God has
created, then God should also care about God’s nonhuman creations, such as
nonhuman animals. God might want to forgive our sins, but does God forgive
humans who continually sin against God’s nonhumans beings? In other words,
does God forgive unrepentant sinners who decide to continue sinning? I’ll
explore these questions next week.

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